Sweden, country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in northern Europe. The name Sweden was derived from the Svear, or Suiones, a people mentioned as early as 98 ce by the Roman author Tacitus. The country’s ancient name was Svithiod. Stockholm has been the permanent capital since 1523.

Sweden occupies the greater part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, which it shares with Norway. The land slopes gently from the high mountains along the Norwegian frontier eastward to the Baltic Sea. Geologically, it is one of the oldest and most stable parts of the Earth’s crust. Its surface formations and soils were altered by the receding glaciers of the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago). Lakes dot the fairly flat landscape, and thousands of islands form archipelagoes along more than 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of jagged, rocky coastline. Like all of northwestern Europe, Sweden has a generally favourable climate relative to its northerly latitude owing to moderate southwesterly winds and the warm North Atlantic Current.

The country has a 1,000-year-long continuous history as a sovereign state, but its territorial expanse changed often until 1809. Today it is a constitutional monarchy with a well-established parliamentary democracy that dates from 1917. Swedish society is ethnically and religiously very homogeneous, although recent immigration has created some social diversity. Historically, Sweden rose from backwardness and poverty into a highly developed postindustrial society and advanced welfare state with a standard of living and life expectancy that rank among the highest in the world.

Sweden long ago disavowed the military aggressiveness that once involved its armies deeply in Europe’s centuries of dynastic warfare. It has chosen instead to play a balancing role among the world’s conflicting ideological and political systems. It is for this reason that Swedish statesmen have often been sought out to fill major positions in the United Nations. At peace since 1814, Sweden has followed the doctrine, enunciated in every document on foreign policy since World War II, of “nonalignment in peace aiming at neutrality in war.”

Land

Finland lies to the northeast of Sweden. A long coastline forms the country’s eastern border, extending along the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea; a narrow strait, known as The Sound (Öresund), separates Sweden from Denmark in the south. A shorter coastline along the Skagerrak and Kattegat straits forms Sweden’s border to the southwest, and Norway lies to the west. Sweden extends some 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to the north and south and 310 miles (500 km) to the east and west.

The country is traditionally divided into three regions: to the north is Norrland, the vast mountain and forest region; in central Sweden is Svealand, an expanse of lowland in the east and highland in the west; and in the south is Götaland, which includes the Småland highlands and, at the southern extremity, the small but rich plains of Skåne. In the far north the region of Lappland overlaps Norrland and northern Finland.

Relief

Norrland is the largest and most sparsely populated of the regions, covering some three-fifths of the country. The region features an undulating surface of rounded hills and mountains, large lakes, and extensive river valleys. To the west lie the Kölen (Kjølen; Scandinavian) Mountains, through which runs the border demarcating Sweden and Norway. This range is characterized by numerous glaciers, the southernmost of which is on Helags Mountain (Helagsfjället), near the Norwegian border. At the region’s far northern edge, north of the Arctic Circle, are Sweden’s highest peaks: Mount Kebne (Kebnekaise), which is 6,926 feet (2,111 metres) in elevation, and Mount Sarek (Sarektjåkkå), which rises 6,854 feet (2,089 metres), in the magnificent Sarek National Park.

The interior of southern Sweden, Småland, is a wooded upland with elevations of 980 to 1,300 feet (300 to 400 metres). A region of poor and stony soils, Småland has been cultivated through the ages with some difficulty, as evidenced by the enormous mounds of stone cleared from the land. More recently the area has been characterized by flourishing small factories.

Except for a stretch of scenic “high coast,” the Bothnian coastal plain is low-lying and stretches from Norrland into Svealand. Most of the fairly level surface of eastern Svealand and northern Götaland was pressed below sea level by glaciers, leaving a landscape of fragmented bedrock, fertile clayey plains, numerous lakes, and sandy ridges. Today these are intermingled with mixed forests and farmland. Sweden’s landscape changes from the hills of Småland to the fertile plains of Skåne, which is physiographically and economically more similar to Denmark than to the rest of Sweden. This is Sweden’s oldest settled and most densely populated agricultural area.

The Swedish coastline is typically rocky, with hundreds of small, sometimes wooded islands. Ground by glacial ice in the same direction, they have a common rounded shape. This type of coast, known as skärgård, is found in both the east and the west, especially around Stockholm and Gothenburg. Off the southern coast in the Baltic, the large, flat islands of Öland and Gotland are outcropping layers of sandstone and limestone.

Drainage

The country’s chief rivers originate in the mountains of Norrland, mostly flowing southeastward with many falls and rapids and emptying into the Gulf of Bothnia or the Baltic Sea. The longest, however, is the Klar-Göta River, which rises in Norway and flows 447 miles (719 km), reaching Lake Väner (Vänern) and continuing southward out of the lake’s southern end to the North Sea; along its southernmost course are the famous falls of Trollhättan. The Muonio and Torne rivers form the frontier with Finland, and in the south the Dal River marks the transition to Svealand. The rivers, except in the far north, where they are protected, are sources of hydroelectric power.

In Svealand are Sweden’s largest lakes, including Lakes Väner, 2,181 square miles (5,650 square km); Vätter (Vättern), 738 square miles (1,911 square km); and Mälar (Mälaren), 440 square miles (1,139 square km). The shores of Lakes Siljan and Storsjön and the river valleys support agriculture.

Soils

The dominant soil of Sweden is till, formed under glacial ice. Till that comes from the archaic bedrock of granites and gneisses forms a poor soil, and forestry and polluted (acid) rain add to its acidification. On the other hand, small areas of clayey till from younger sedimentary limestone, scattered mainly in southern Sweden, form brown earth, providing agricultural soils of high fertility. In addition, vast areas of central Sweden are covered by heavy and fertile sea-bottom clays raised out of the sea by postglacial land uplift. One-fifth of the country, especially in rainy southwestern Sweden and the cold far north, is covered by marshland and peat.

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